Chapter 289 - 229: New Comrades

Today, even the secluded Little White came out of the training tower, limping and barking at the police dogs.

"Little White, your dream pooch is about to get stolen!"

The old soldiers, wilted but mischievous, washed the cars while mercilessly teasing Little White.

Little White, after all, was an old soldier of the squadron, and everyone knew its preferences.

In the squadron, besides giving a few people the cold shoulder, it was only interested in a white female Labrador named "La Duo." Whenever "La Duo" darted to the front of the training tower, Little White would come out, stretch its leg, and sniff her behind.

La Duo was quite the social butterfly, having birthed a litter of black pups and also a litter of white ones.

Little White had attempted multiple times, hoping it could sire a litter that looked like local Pekingeses, but it just didn’t have the capability.

Baited by the old soldiers’ jibes, Little White barked louder and louder, extremely agitated.

As Fang Huai wiped down the car, he said irritably, "What has Little White done to deserve this from you? When Squad Leader Xiao Hei left, it went without food for days! I’ve just barely managed to coax it out to play, and now you’re all insulting it again!

To coax it out of the training tower, I’ve bought it several meat bones already!"

"Ha-ha..." Chen Zhenghai laughed miserably, "Come on, are we really teasing it? It’s just a scrappy little dog, yet it dreams of driving a big car! La Duo just lies there, and with a swish of her tail, she leaves him in the dust!"

"Ha-ha-ha..." Those surrounding laughed with knowing looks.

Sun Jingwu also said with a chuckle, "However, Xiao Hei used to want to train it to be a police dog. It’s just that with its size and being a cripple, it probably doesn’t stand a chance in this lifetime."

The sound of Sun Jingwu’s voice had barely faded when Little White ceased barking.

It turned around and toward the direction of Sun Jingwu, "Pff" it let out a loud fart.

Then it turned back, its large eyes looking at Sun Jingwu with some disdain.

Everyone was stunned.

Oh my god, what does this mean? Not accepting the diss?

Does it really understand human speech?

And just now when Chen Zhenghai teased it about a dog driving a big car, it didn’t react this way!

Fang Huai just smiled. Having communicated with Little White these past days, he deeply understood why Squadron Leader Xiao Hei couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Its intelligence was something Fang Huai had never seen before in his life.

It wasn’t a matter of whether it understood human speech, it was a matter of whether it was willing to pay attention to you.

Fang Huai slowly squatted down and smiled at Little White:

"Little White, you mean to say you just disdain being a police dog, right? Now that Xiao Hei is gone, do you want to be a police dog? The benefits are great, you know! You might even get a lady partner specially arranged for you!"

Everyone was entertained again, and even Hao Chengbin chimed in, "Alright, Fang Huai, you promised Xiao Hei you would take good care of Little White. It just got better, so why are you now teasing it again?"

Fang Huai looked up, lifting his eyebrows:

"When did I tease it? I’m serious! It really understands!"

"The day before yesterday, I went out grocery shopping with Squad Leader Chang, and I told it at the bottom of the training tower that we were going to buy it some bones, and asked if it wanted to come with us to pick for itself.

As a result, it promptly came down and, at the market, it chose its own bones. When we got back, it stared at Squad Leader Chang as Chang cooked them in the pot outside the kitchen!"

"What’s more, when the bones were cooked to perfection, it went to ask Squad Leader Chang to lift the lid off the pot.

"With Little White’s IQ, if you taught it to write, I bet it could learn that, too!"

On hearing this, everyone exchanged puzzled looks.

The dog is that incredible?

There were past claims that Little White was a miracle dog, even Chang Ming and the Logistics Officer said so, but few had witnessed it display any miracles.

Liu Jianfeng could not help but twist his mouth and snorted dismissively, "That’s nonsense! When I was a new recruit and Squad Leader Xiao Hei wasn’t around, I fed it, and it couldn’t even learn to shake hands!

You all say it’s smart, but I don’t see where! Look at those police dogs, what can’t they do? That’s what I call smart!"

Yet Fang Huai scoffed, "Obedience and intelligence are different things, and it just doesn’t bother to perform for you!

"Many dogs, the smarter they are, the less they are willing to obey human commands, because they have their own ideas.

"The selection of police dogs emphasizes obedience over intelligence, which doesn’t mean they’re the smartest."

After saying this, he turned and asked Little White:

"Right? Little White, tell me, do you want to be a police dog?"

At that moment, Little White sat down again.

It seemed to hesitate for a moment, then somewhat haughtily lifted its chin and raised a front paw—first high up, then lowering it a bit.

That got Fang Huai laughing heartily.

Everyone else was puzzled.

Hao Chengbin was flabbergasted: "Hey, don’t just laugh, does it really understand?"

"Yes, it understood."

"Then... then what did it mean by that just now?"

Hao Chengbin gestured twice in imitation of Little White’s actions.

Fang Huai looked back, stretched out his hand, pinching his thumb and index finger almost together, then released it just a little and laughed:

"It means, just a tiny bit."

"Woof!" barked Little White in acknowledgment.

...Everyone was taken aback for a moment then burst out exclaiming:

"Damn?"

"I mean, Fang Huai, did you recently install a dog language translator in your brain?"

...

The police dogs had their fun, but training was still necessary.

Half an hour later, on the back playground.

"Close!"

"Close!"

The trainers on the playground appeared to be cursing.

But, in fact, they were issuing commands.

"Close" is a key obedience exercise for search and rescue dogs, requiring them to walk closely alongside their trainers without a leash during movement.

"Up" involves overcoming obstacles, walking on a single-plank bridge, jumping through fire hoops, flipping over barriers, and such, allowing the search and rescue dogs to swiftly enter complex search and rescue scenes.

"Search" refers to barking to alert after box searches, along with more complex tasks like hiding and seeking people—the purpose of which is self-explanatory.

Police dog training also includes exercises for actions and bite strength training.

Members of the Second Squadron finished washing the cars and came over to the playground to watch the training, waiting for lunch to be served.

Fang Huai watched very attentively.

The approaching day made him eager to learn how search and rescue dogs cooperate in actual rescues.

Moreover, he had intended to let Little White go up and challenge the search and rescue dogs, but Little White really did as it pleased. As soon as it saw the police dogs were off training, it immediately grabbed one of its own stored bones from the training tower and ran over to La Duo, continuing its courting endeavors.

It simply couldn’t be called back.

After watching for a while, Fang Huai found it somewhat tedious.

It wasn’t that tedium was bad, but this kind of training required a lot of perseverance. The same movements over and over, the police dogs moved fast, quickly repeating the operation once again.

Over and over.

Fang Huai confirmed that he could not train Little White to be a professional firefighting police dog; Little White didn’t have the patience for it.

Let alone making it cross a single-plank bridge or jump through a hoop, with its clumsy hopping, it would take half a day just to run a lap around the playground.

Forget it, forget it, he had promised to be good to it and shouldn’t be hard on it anymore.

At this moment, Qi Xiaohui murmured on the side:

"Ah, being in the dog squad is great. Every day you shout about dog training. When you want to go out and have fun, just say you’re taking the dog for a walk!

The dogs even act coquettish and roll around! We get shouted at for training every day, and if we sit for a while, we still get chewed out.

If our Squadron’s dogs could become police dogs, I’d train two by myself!"

Fang Huai laughed.

"Squad Leader Qi, those dumb dogs in our Squadron definitely have no chance now, but you could grab Little White and ask it. Little White is smart, it might just work."

"It... has bad legs and feet, forget it."

Qi Xiaohui, a first-class soldier of that year, had a completely different attitude towards Little White than the old soldiers did; they hardly ever joked about it because when they left the squad, Little White was already a "dog squad leader," and it was protected by Little Black and the Logistics Officer in the Second Squadron, so the first-class soldiers didn’t dare mess with it.

Fang Huai looked at Little White in the distance, again feeling somewhat itchy.

This damn dog was too smart.

It’s a waste not to use it.

In the event of an earthquake search and rescue, trained dogs are even more precious than humans.

Moreover, Pekingese have a very good sense of smell, and Little White, even though it was a mix, couldn’t be far off.

Thinking about it, Fang Huai dashed towards Little White outside the cage near the courtyard wall.

Little White spotted Fang Huai and immediately started barking loudly, but it couldn’t escape his grasp and was scooped up and taken towards the dog squad.

The old soldiers saw this scene and laughed.

"Damn Fang Huai, he really wants to turn it into a police dog, the heartless bastard. Poor Little Black, your brother’s going to suffer."

Fang Huai walked up to a few resting dog trainers, proudly placed Little White on the ground, and said:

"Squad Leader, take a look, can my dog become a police dog?"

A non-commissioned officer laughed: "Isn’t this Little White? I know it, your dog? This is Little Black’s dog!"

"Tsk." Fang Huai waved: "Squad Leader Xiao Hei has already passed it on to me!"

"You’re Fang Huai, right?"

Fang Huai’s reputation had spread, and an old squad leader recognized him and said with a laugh, "Little Black used to bring it here for us to see, wanting to train it. We tried, but this dog has no desire to retrieve... it doesn’t have the urge to fetch things, it’s hard to command, can’t be trained."

As he spoke, he took out a ball from his pocket and teased Little White.

Little White showed no reaction, even turning its head to the side disdainfully.

"See? It’s not interested in anything. You can try yourself if you want."

The old squad leader handed him the ball.

Fang Huai took the ball and brought it near Little White.

Not a twitch.

Fang Huai got angry, pointed at La Duo’s cage, and said:

"Little White, if you don’t fetch this ball for me, I’ll cover La Duo’s cage with a cloth from now on! You won’t be able to see her!"

With that, he threw the ball far away.

Little White stared into Fang Huai’s angry eyes, faced off with him for two seconds.

Then, turning its head, it let out a howl and dashed toward the ball.

The squad leaders were all stunned.

Damn, what kind of dog is this? It understands communication like that?

Seeing Little White return with the ball, Fang Huai was exceedingly happy:

"How about that? My dog, huh?"

The old squad leader who had spoken earlier swallowed dryly.

"Er... if you really want to train it, we can try, but it definitely won’t work as a police dog, the paperwork is very complicated, and it wouldn’t pass the physical examination."

Fang Huai waved: "Who cares about being a police dog? If it can search and rescue, I’ll make sure it lives better than a police dog. Clothes, shoes, whatever, I’ll buy it for it. From now on, it’s my comrade."

...

minutes later.

"Woof, woof, woof..."

In front of a sealed box, Little White let out a 20-second long bark.

A non-commissioned officer came out of the box, attempting to pat its head as encouragement, but Little White disdainfully turned its head away.

Everyone on the playground was dumbfounded.

Fang Huai burst into uncontrollable laughter: "Nice one, brother, awesome! Let’s do another!"

At that moment, Hao Chengbin rushed over from the side yard, quickly approaching and patting Fang Huai:

"Kid, had enough fun? Let me tell you, this afternoon, our Squadron is getting four new comrades, and two of them are going to the Special Duty Squad."

Fang Huai already knew about this arrangement and wasn’t surprised. Pointing at Little White in the distance, he laughed and said, "Squad Leader, I have a new comrade too! Little White just completed the police dogs’ search and rescue subject!"

Hao Chengbin was taken aback: "Really? How did you do that?"

"Heh heh," Fang Huai whispered, "I promised it I’d pin down La Duo tonight. Whether it works or not, that’s not my problem."

Hao Chengbin: ...

"Smack!"

The long-missed heavy slap.

Fang Huai covered the back of his head, looking back aggrievedly.

Hao Chengbin frowned and said, "Eat well at lunch, and be sure to give a proper send-off to several squad leaders. Xiong Jie, Wu Jun, and Qi Xiaohui are being transferred. Xiong Jie is going to the City Brigade, and the other two are off to the county squadron."

Only then did Fang Huai turn his head back, eyes wide in surprise: "What’s going on?"

It was only then that Hao Chengbin let out a long sigh, saying.

"People come and go."